Expansive Learning and Everyday Resistance in a Public Access Computer Lab

• In Event: Distance Learning and Technology Access and Assessments in Adult Education

Abstract

Public access computer labs are important spaces dedicated to providing access to programs and resources focused on digital literacy, workforce development, and adult education. However, tensions emerge when the technology platforms being used in the labs can exploit users by asking for invasive amounts of personal data. This qualitative research project explores the learning and development of adults in a public access computer lab. As competent systems navigators and lifelong learners, the adults in the lab gained new digital literacies while continuing to work toward addressing structural barriers in their community. When faced with challenges related to predatory technologies, the adults in the lab temporarily upended existing power structures by engaging in acts of creativity, play, defiance, and protest.

Author

• Jennifer Kobrin, University of Tennessee
  Presenting Author